"Ciao Italia!" We travelled one night, trying to avoid G8's troubles on the motorway...
We slept in the car on friday..
We sat hours in a fulfilled stadium then... The GIG: "It's a Beautiful Day..."
Thanx to God, the first thing you appreciate is that all the kitch has gone away from the stage.
It seems almost to get back at 12 years ago, seeing them play in the middle of
a naked one, with just the power of the songs making them great.
But then you realize they are U2 decades after, and you get it from the way Bono looks,
like everyone's father or major brother there in his total black outfit which neverthless shows
him in good weight; you guess it from the way they avoid to move like years ago, trying just
to play well cos after all is what counts really, and you got it from
the new lyrics they sing taken from the new album,
from the political accents mixed up with songs which speak of family and quiet ;
you get it from Bono's antics, from that consumed
actor behaviour he shows, free though from
any eccess of a double face he was having before.
There are no others Bono there: just the one and only, the man who even when his voice starts
to feel the weight of age, is capable
to move you to tears crying almost himself too on the beautiful Wake Up Dead Man.
But let's start from the beginning of a long wonderful gig.
After Verdena (a local version of My Vitriol.. but even better than them if I may say,
younger than them and able to produce a "Finelines" type of record
but two years before the British band..)
and Fun Loving Criminals , at around 21h30... the stage starts to burn... among screamings
higher than a chorus of white voices we see the band come, and we hear
among kind smiles of affection Bono talkin Italian to us for cheering us up.
He will keep on be moved from our endless enthousiasm and love, and he will
repeat a lot during the night that we are "The best"
and "Incredible" for how much our voice never get tired or dried following them playing...
We were waiting also for an immediate reference to Genova, but the gig starts on Elevation
and immediatly after a delicate version of Beautiful Day fulfills the air..
and all think that yeah.. we shouldn't let it get away... We shall keep this warmness within us;
I am so damn happy to be there with my friends... oh yeah, there's no better way to enjoy similar
songs, even if I miss my love's arms there, and he knows how much I missed him there already.
It's really powerful to feel 70000 voices singin with you the songs,
and see over the four mega screens up over the stage
the faces of the band members smiling at us while playing or singing.
They know we love them.. oh yes they do... :)
The music keep on melting us up and together like a whole complete body made of several and
several heads, and an unique mixed up voice sings so high that it's not easy to get Bono's voice
especially if you are not under the stage.
The acoustic rendition of the stadium is not that great either, but really no one cares
cos what makes us happy is to be there, to feel empaty and communance, while everyone waits
for some more from Bono, cos we knew from radios there he was in Genova this morning.
But the message doesn't come soon, we have time to enjoy a lovely tender Kite he dedicates
to his son, before all got positively surprised from a new version of New York (I found it
dreadful on the record) which lets us say constantly among us that The Edge is the best .
Similarly, I will Follow receive a similar new dress, but no one was ever disappointed in
it I bet..
Then all of us start to scream of pleasure cos like a bible we all can recognize the notes of a
old fashioned Sunday Bloody Sunday start to creep... and finally... Bono sings something
differently, rapping over it while walking in the catwalk a sentence I didn't get,
I just understood it was for Genova then before exiting people being nearer told me
he said that the violence has no reasons to be nor in Genova nor in Dublin,
but I got at least when he asked to us to "Stand up for our rights"
and I put high in the sky my hand then, cos I still can't see why a rockstar has
to make the politician, but I use to show when whomever's thought matches mine as well.
Over that sentence he plays a sunday bloody sunday transforming itself in a raggae song, it must
have been a Bob Marley's one but everyone was screaming so... I couldn't bet that.
After that it starts Stuck in a Moment he dedicates instead to his wife with loving words,
then he asks to the Edge like he was a juke box on legs to play
In a Little While and a lovely mix between Desire and the Tozzi's Gloria, while showing
to all of us the rest of band in a mervellous way:
Again I had to compare what I was getting from his words with people outside the stadium
talking with me after the gig, but more or less I was getting all:
he said of Adam that "if he wasn't for him, the band wouldn't have got any aim",
of the Edge that "the band wouldn't have got any pride if without this man",
and of Larry "this band wouldn't have got any force if it wasn't for this man"
and then he said of himself:
"and we wouldn't have got any problem if it wasn't for this man- indicates himself- cos I love to
get in trouble"
It was clear he was loving play there for us all so into the fact we were there.
And the gig was long, so long, with the pearls kept at the end when everyone was living all with
expectations and love, an immense one, waiting for the songs all Italians adore as much as our songs,
With or Without You, One, Mysterious Ways and Where The Streets Have No Name...
Then all could end, but we are in the middle of a proud crowd, in the middle of a gig which should make
anyone proud and in front of a band proud to keep being alive.
Then.... a Pride unexpected and welcomed as an hurban Hymn got all of us like in magic,I think that
I've lost my voice there and honestly I was shivering all way throught.
It was the gig, the band, my friends and a sky above and a sky placed on the grass made of thousands burning
stars and hearts.
Finished? Not at all.. they came again for giving us another candy...
their first single ever I've never heard before, Out Of Control.
A surprise coming from a band I know from all my life.. after so many years
they can always make me discover new things, and
keep on suggesting me that what makes music be great is just ONE thing: soul.
In this beautiful day, they showed everyone they are still have a massive kind of it.
"Walk On, walk on
what you've got they can't steal it,
no, they can't even feel it:
walk on, walk on and stay safe tonight"
gallimel |
